For almost two decades, it’s been a simple question with a deceptively revealing answer- Jay Leno or Dave Letterman?

If you answer David Letterman, I can assume for the rest of the conversation that you appreciate things like laughter, honesty and a particular respect for the hard work and dedication to unpaid interns (heyo!).

If you prefer Jay Leno, I can safely assume that A) Your 65 years old or older, B) You chuckle at Kate Gosselin jokes or C) You are actually Jay Leno.

Harsh, yes, but with the recent decision by NBC to move Leno back to his old spot at 11:35 at night and in the process booting current “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien back a time slot, the ghosts of Leno’s back stabbing past are resurrected.

For those not familiar, in 1992 Johnny Carson left his post at the “Tonight Show” after being host since the early 1960’s. Carson was a legend and became a national barometer of culture and current events as the years past, along the way making the “Tonight Show” an NBC cash cow. So his retiring and and successor was a big deal at the time, and a lot of people assumed David Letterman, host of the show directly after Carson’s, would get the nod. Letterman and Carson shared a lot of similar traits- both mid-west born and raised, possesing a natural TV host personality and a wicked sense of sarcasm.

According to most sources, including the great book The Late Shift, Carson personally liked Letterman and thought he would be a natural fit as the new host of the “Tonight Show”. It also helped that Dave all but worshiped Carson and out of respect for him did not actively campaign for the job. But Jay Leno had other ideas.

Rather than continue to hone his actually pretty-sharp stand-up act, Leno decided the path to the “Tonight Show” was to broaden and smooth out his comedy, foregoing Letterman’s edge and Carson’s wit and instead becoming something of a bland imitation of both of them. He also worked behind the scenes at NBC and his take-no-prisoners manager made sure that a whisper campaign was started with rumors swirling that David Letterman was resistant to NBC executive’s advice and that his show just would not work at an earlier time slot.

So NBC chose Leno over Letterman and Dave, feeling betrayed by an old friend, bolted to CBS.

As A.V. Club writer Amelie Gillette put it,

“Letterman is the hero of The Late Shift—the guy who doesn’t want to kiss asses in order to get The Tonight Show; the guy who, rather naively in retrospect, believes that his merit and hard work will eventually be rewarded; and the guy who, after being passed over by his network, stands up for himself and leaves to make his own, better version of The Tonight Show on another network”.

So this leads us to the recent news that NBC, in it’s infinite fourth place vision, got tired of Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” getting beat in the ratings and is moving Leno back to his old home at 11:35 for a half hour show.

This is stupid and wrong for so many reasons. NBC moved Conan out to L.A., built him an expensive new studio and gave him the keys to the biggest show in late night and they don’t even give him a YEAR to find his audience?

Granted, O’Brien’s humor is a little off-beat but his self-deprecating jokes and lightning sharp timing should gradually find a larger audience. This is where I have to admit I have been watching Conan O’Brien for more than a decade and that he forever has my respect for writing the monorail episode of “The Simpsons”.

That’s not to say O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” was perfect. I think he watered down his humor a bit too much to suit some imaginary mass audience that no longer exists in the year 2010. Any of his shows that don’t include the FedEx Pope, Masturbating Bear or the Sexy Abe Lincoln channel are just missing that certain something.

Ironically enough this whole mess has inspired Conan to do some of his best work, like the monologue clip below. All of this is a very long way of saying that NBC better not screw a talented performer over again for a second time all to accommodate some pandering, willfully milquetoast act.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

“Absence only makes the heart grow fonder” and if that’s the case then we must be in love Lax All Stars nation because it’s been a while since we Got Me Or Died Trying.

This is my first post of the new year and to ring it in the right way I decided to run down a few pledges I’ve made to myself that I think would not only benefit me in 2010 but every reader who has the pleasure of accidentally clicking on my posts.

These days it’s hard to be in your 20’s and not have a Facebook, Twitter, G Chat (or MySpace if you’re “online age” is mid-20’s) or dozens of other social media applications at you’re fingertips. With the spread of the iPhone and similar gadgets people are connected 24/7 and every minutiae of a persons day-to-day life is documented. This is a blessing if I want to see pictures of various meals currently being enjoyed by female friends or hear about how awesome Nepal is from someone I haven’t spoken too in seven years, but because I actually have things going on in my life it’s not exactly relevant information.

When did over sharing become ok? Just because I accepted you’re friend request doesn’t mean I’m dying to see the fourth totally necessary photo album of you’re skiing trip in Aspen or the live status feed documenting afternoon traffic. Facebook is quickly becoming MySpace 2.0- not because of the influx of more people but because something that should be used as a way to keep in touch with friends and family is becoming a shrine to self-indulgence and ‘What kind of farm animal/mafia hitman/Jonas brother are you?” style silliness. I’m guilty of spending too much time surfing these sites and I feel like in some small way I’m encouraging this behavior by doing so. That’s a long way of saying we should all cut back on the online time in 2010 and put the iPhone down when hanging around other human beings. Also, it turns out my Jonas Brother is Nick.

2. See more movies

2009 was kind of a crappy year for movies, but 2010 is shaping up to be very interesting. I’ve got the trailers for a few interesting ones below. Basically this is an excuse for me to post the “Iron Man 2″ trailer.

“Inception”

“Hot Tub Time Machine”

“Iron Man 2″

Editor Craven’s note: While I’m here I might as well add the trailer for Mel Gibson’s new movie “Edge of Darkness” if only because I enjoy hearing my name screamed by gun wielding maniacs, mob killers, and an enraged Mel Gibson.

“I’m the guy with nothing to lose!”

3. Try to keep my job/social commitments when the new “NBA Jam” game comes out

Just today the news leaked that later this year the world will blessed with a new NBA Jam game, to be playable on the Nintendo Wii. The 12-year old me is ecstatic right now. Many times in the 90’s I sacrificed my hard earned allowance money to purchase the arcade-style basketball game, complete with flaming basketballs and the option to unlock the Clinton’s as playable characters. This is the best kind of 90’s nostalgia and I think the Wii is the perfect platform for it to return on. The first time I play it and the announcer says “He’s heating up!” I might get a little misty eyed.

Editor’s note #2: Between NBA Jam and Perfect Dark, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mitch more glued to a television. Ok, in truth maybe I was a little excited as well. All the time we spent with Clyde the Glide hammering home dunks and Joanna Dark shooting double pistols certainly didn’t help the “girls refusing to come within 100 yards” situation for either of us. Or it could have been my little mishap with Sun-In during 7th grade, who knows?

4. Read More

Pretty cliche, but I think it is still a worthy goal. I think people are so inundated with text as it is with the internet, phone messages etc. that people forget the joy of actually reading (and finishing) a good book. I read some great books this past year that rekindled (pun intended?) my love of reading- “Breaks of the Game”, “Salem’s Lot”, “Born to Run” and “Nixonland” just to name a few, and the satisfactory feeling you get of finishing a well-written, time consuming book is something I’m glad I’ve rediscovered. It sounds just as smug as “exercise more” or “smoke less” but anyone can find a good book on something they are passionate about.

“I can be anythhhhiiiiiiiiiiing!”

5. Continue to help Lacrosse All Stars grow and expand, helping the site connect players and fans and contribute my articles on time and properly edited

Haha, just kidding.

Happy New Year!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”. Read all his lifestyle articles here.

It’s a GMODT Christmas miracle! Or that’s what my Lax All Stars editors said when I actually showed up for work today. Christmas is right around the corner and I’ve opened up my sack-o-goodies to give you a little dose of holiday cheer. We’ll start with a Micheal Keaton abomination and end with a new GMODT tradition.

Jack Frost is a charming movie about a father who abandons his son to pursue a music career then tragically dies in a freak snow storm. His son then plays a magical gold harmonica that he got from his dad before he died and by playing the instrument his dad is resurrected as a freakishly large and mobile snowman. I saw this movie in theaters sadly and the highlight of that experience was seeing the poster with the tag line “He’s the snow-man!”. My guess is Micheal Keaton wishes he could have this one back.

Conan gets to the bottom of the greatest Christmas movie of all time with the biggest movie star in the world. “Jingle All the Way!”

There have been thousands of covers, but none can match the original. From the cheesy synths to George Micheal and the Other Guy singing about broken hearts while hanging out in what looks to be a Christmas post card, you just can’t go wrong with “Last Christmas”.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”. Read all his lifestyle articles here.

If it’s Sunday night, that can only mean one thing- time to digest some awesome TV. Well, that used to be true until very recently. This fall both Mad Men and Curb Your Enthusiasm were the best one-two punch you could ask for on one night. Going from Don Draper’s morally ambiguous adventures in the 1960’s to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld spitballing about Muffin Tops and turns of phrase was a reminder of how great TV can be when it tries. Yet both these shows still got creamed in the ratings by Keeping Up With The Kardashians (I just can’t keep up!).

But Sundays weren’t the exclusive property of Mad Men and Curb for me until recently. Shows such as The Simpsons (1997-2003 versions), The Sopranos, “Entourage” (2005 to “I still can’t believe I’m watching this”) and Band of Brothers, which Craven and I watched religiously early this decade at my house because I was the only one who had HBO (still proud of this).

So this Sunday I settled onto the couch to watch anything that grabbed my interest off the bat, and the winner of that prize was Taken, the 2008 action movie starring Liam Neeson with “a very particular set of skills”. Neeson plays a bad-ass ex-CIA officer who plays by his own rules…and loves his daughter very much. Taken was just about the perfect cable movie. It has Liam Neeson cartoonishly kicking ass all over Paris, super sleazy euro trash villains and scenes that come out of nowhere to move the plot forward quite hilariously.

Spoiler: This isn't going to end well for the greasy looking Euro.

My favorite one of those scenes was towards the beginning of the movie, where after we have established what a caring, loving father Neeson is. The scene opens, someone knocks on his door, and out of the blue it’s his ex-CIA buddies! They then proceed to drink beer and talk like no actual human being would about Neeson’s shady CIA past and how he should come back out of retirement. Nothing like drinking some beer and speaking in Exposition! Needless to say Taken gets a thumbs up from me and if you catch it on cable even better.

GMODT Bonus Round!

Inspired by all the “best of the 00’s” lists out there, for the rest of the month I’m going to drop some of my favorite songs/clips/moments of the past ten years at the end of my posts. Just to leave wanting more, let’s take a trip back to 2004 today. Here is Jon Stewart personally canceling Crossfire.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”. Read all his lifestyle articles here.

Seeing that I’m strangely fascinated with the end of this decade, I’m really enjoying all of the lists and essays that are springing up online. All of them trying to explain this cra-zay past ten years.

Time Magazine called it “The Decade From Hell” and although they named me Person Of The Year in 2006, I find it hard to disagree with them. After all this was the decade that 9/11, George Bush’s first term, Creed and teenage acne all hit me at once. But seeing as how this was the first decade I can remember from start to finish, I can still appreciate the finer things the ‘aughts had to offer…and so can other people!

Here are hand picked portions of some “Best Of” lists that are worth a look (if only for arguments).

…this was most centrally and importantly the first decade when television became recognizable as art, great art: collectible and life-changing and transformative and lasting. As the sixties are to music and the seventies to movies, the aughts—which produced the best and worst shows in history—were to TV.

December 19 (2001): First of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ringsfilms opens. Exposes rich, endless gold mine that is geeks.

The A.V. Club Best Of The Decade

Best Late Night Comedy Show - The Daily Show / The Colbert Report

Best Video Game – Bioshock

Craven played this one so here is his take:

“This game feels like a Disney animator took a bunch of acid and decided to create a twisted “uptopia” gone bad…then threw it all underwater just for kicks. Reminded me of the college days huddled around a Gamecube playing Resident Evil with Mitch and trying not to pee myself. Little demon children tailed by giant robots now scare the hell out of me.”

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

After coming in and out of consciousness all weekend from a tryptophan induced coma, I’m back today to throw some stuff at this digital wall and see what sticks. Having said that…here is your regular Monday dose of GMODT!

We’ll start with Carl Sagan auto-tuned. That’s right, someone remixed Sagan’s old show “Cosmos” into a trippy, auto-tuned enhanced lecture on the nature of the universe. He even gets an assist from Stephen Hawking. This video is one T-Pain cameo away from being the best thing on YouTube.

I know it’s a classic and all, but I just discovered Nas‘s “Illmatic”. The production on the album is awesome, my favorite being DJ Premier ‘s “Memory Lane”:

(Some NSFW language)

Radiohead maybe known these days for experimental music and giving away their albums for free, but when they want too they can still write some awesome Brit-pop. This is a b-side from Radiohead‘s 2003 album “Hail To The Thief” and it sounds like the song Coldplay is always trying to write but just can’t quite pull off.

Listen to this on a Sunday morning to “take the edge off”.

Curb Your Enthusiasm came to an end last week and the Seinfeld “reunion” episode finally saw the light of day. It was the closet thing to a new Seinfeld were ever going to get and even as a seven minute faux-episode, it was still better than the finale (sorry Larry).

The entire finale was worth watching for Jerry and George’s conversation about strangers alone (strangers give the rest of us a bad rap). Would an eighth season of Curb be the best one of the series if it just featured Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld hanging out and bantering back and forth?

“…seeing him back with Larry made one sense he had returned to familiar, comfortable terrain, with his old pal, just trying to be funny again. These are two lifelong friends who, when they work together, are wholly at ease and consistently uproarious”.

Basically just like you’re friends when you hang out, except actually funny and multi-millionaires. Jerry, step away from the kid movies and start complaining to Larry David again. For the good of television!

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About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

Today I’m proud to say I’m stealing a page from Oprah’s play book. Even though Oprah is about to go on a year and a half long goodbye tour, it’s never too early to pay tribute. Try this little experiment: walk into a large chain bookstore and look at the large display of new books directly in front of you. I’m willing to bet nine times out of ten, one of those books will have an “Oprah’s Book Club” sticker on the front cover. And if that’s the case, expect your Mom to have already read it. You have to respect any woman as powerful as Oprah to use her position as an advocate for reading.

So on one hand she has introduced classic literature to a whole new segment of the population, and on the other this is the same woman who unleashed Dr. Phil on society. I’ll call it a wash. So today we have the GMODT’s Book Club, books that I’ve read recently and can whole-heartedly recommend.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
~ Christopher McDougall

The author starts out by asking a simple question? Why do runners feet hurt? He starts to answer the question by following a reclusive tribe of runners in the canyons of Mexico. They run hundreds of miles a week and wear nothing but crude homemade sandals. How come this particular tribe can run for such long distances in extreme conditions and run well into their 80’s? The modern athletic shoe industry is also put under a microscope and McDougall’s recounting of the early days of Nike is fascinating to any homegrown Oregonian.

Generation Kill
~ Evan Wright

I first learned about this book through the HBO mini-series of the same name. Evan Wright, who was working for Rolling Stone at the time, was embedded with the First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines right before and during the initial Iraq invasion in 2003. His writing of this time period is extremely honest and graphic in it’s depiction of what happens to these soldiers as a war is begun and it’s consequences to themselves and their friends and family. I would say read the book before you see the mini-series only because the more detailed account in the book does the soldiers portrayed more justice.

The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy
~ Bill Simmons

Bill Simmons (aka ESPN’s The Sports Guy) finally unleashes his 736 page tome to his first love: basketball. Anyone who has read his columns on ESPN in the past 5 years will know what to expect- lot’s of Boston sports references, copious amounts of foot notes and and an overload of 80’s pop culture references. But if your any type of fan of the modern NBA, this book is probably required reading.

Not only because you’ll want to know what angry fans are talking about on basketball message boards (if your in to that sort of thing), but because you can tell Simmons actually cares about what he’s talking about and his views and descriptions of the game have a way of seeping into the way you watch and study the game of basketball. Also, he has a pretty convincing chapter comparing Kobe Bryant to Teen Wolf.

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About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

Editor’s note: Curb Your Enthusiasmis an HBO show and as such the clips use NSFW language. Earmuffs for the kiddies. Consider this your warning.

As the resident king of all media, I have to say that if you’re not watching the current season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, either you A) don’t have HBO or B)… actually there is no “b” because you don’t have any excuses left. It’s arguably the funniest show on television right now.

If you are not familiar with the premise of Curb, the show centers around Larry David, writer and co-creator of a little show called Seinfeld. Larry plays an exaggerated version of himself; rich and bored in Los Angeles, mainly interacting with his wife Cheryl and agent/friend Jeff.

The character of George on Seinfeld was based on David (Larry actually did the voices of many recurring characters, Yankee owner Steinbrenner being the most famous), and he comes off very George-ish but even more of an insensitive jackass. The show airing on HBO helps it a lot, as none of the humor has to be toned down and the more ridiculous and profane the situations get usually the funnier it is.

In it’s seventh season (which David is hinting might be it’s last) the plot centers around Larry trying to win back his ex-wife by casting her in a Seinfeld reunion show. The ongoing reunion plot has been extremely well done, between getting to see Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld sitting around and bouncing jokes off each other as they write the new Seinfeld script to Jason Alexander passive-aggressively battling Larry over seemingly innocent things like asking to borrow a pen. The crowning moment of the reunited Seinfeld gang is Micheal “Kramer” Richards meeting Leon, Larry’s roommate and all-around funniest man alive.

Richards meets Leon aka "Danny Duberstein"

I wrote about Leon a few weeks ago, but his meeting with Richards and their discussion of “Groats Disease” (his infamous 2006 racist rant at hecklers being the elephant in the room) was absolutely genius and handled the situation perfectly. I don’t know whats funnier, Micheal Richards opening the door to see Leon and shouting “I said I was sorry!” or Leon dressing up as a member of the Nation of Islam because that was “the whitest thing I have.”

Enjoy the full NSFW clip below:

Here are some of the best clips from past seasons of the show, from Larry getting confronted by his wife and Wanda Sykes about a certain fetish he might have to the introduction of “Krazy Eyez”.

Bonus video: Micheal Richards on Letterman right after his tirade. Most awkward interview ever?

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About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

Editor’s note: The lifestyle guru gets his very own logo. Look for even more from Mitch in the coming weeks. Got a suggestion or something to say? Email info@lacrosseallstars.com or let your voice be head in the comments.

“…a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups.”

This concept got kick started in the late 60’s with bands such as Cream (Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce) and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The newest super group on the block is Them Crooked Vultures, featuring the killer line-up of John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Dave Ghrol (Nirvana/Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age). With that murderers row of rock talent there was a boatload of hype around the group’s just released self-titled album and in my humble opinion it more than meets expectations.

The rhythm section, with Ghrol on drums and Jones on bass, is locked-in and as interesting as you would expect. Fans of Queens of the Stone Age will appreciate Homme’s talent on both guitar and vocal duties. As a whole, the album is not exactly re-inventing the wheel but in a market full of watered-down emo bands and pop-country, a solid rock album like this is more than welcome. To prove how 2009 they are the band even released the album in it’s entirety on YouTube and I’ve cherry picked my favorites below.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

It’s early November, Fall is in the air, and… Jim Carrey’s “A Christmas Carol” is in movie theaters? If you too are troubled by society’s decision to ostracize Thanksgiving and warmly embrace the holiday season in mid-October, then boy do we have a podcast for you.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler and all-around well connected Lacrosse All Stars insider. The lacrosse playing ended in high school, but the friendships never did. The Prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

Editor’s note: Did you miss Mitch’s hodgepodge collection of YouTube classics from last Monday? Catch up here.

Back again with some personal YouTube favorites! Today, I’m bringing you everything from a hypnotic montage of David Caruso taking off his sunglasses to Air Jordan getting schooled at his own camp.

If you’re not familiar with the show CSI: Miami, then this montage of the beginning scenes from the show will make everything crystal clear. Show begins: a grisly crime has happened in South Beach, David Caruso gets called to the scene and promptly attempts a witty one-liner or rejoinder to his colleagues. Cue Roger Daltreyof The Who ‘s primal crime-solving scream and that’s what I call good television!

“So we have a victim who started this week big man on campus and left it… dead on arrival.”

This next one is a mash-up I found of hip hop duo Clipse over the beat from Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights”. Considering Clipse is one of the most underrated hip-hop groups around and the “Flashing Lights” beat is a contender for the best beat in the past five years, it would be hard to screw up this remix. Worth it alone for the line “with a mean comeback like the return of the Sith“.

This video I put out as a tribute to Michael Jordon’s Hall of Fame speech. I won’t spoil the end, but it involves a middle-aged MJ, an out- of -shape CEO, and hilarious Jordan taunting. Compelling.

Brokeback to the Future is the best of the re-cut trailers meme that appeared on the internet a few years back. With some creative editing and music choices, Back to the Future is turned into the romantic drama you always thought it was.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler and all-around well connected Lacrosse All Stars insider. The lacrosse playing ended in high school, but the friendships never did. The Prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.

]]>http://laxallstars.com/gmodts-personal-youtube-favorites-part-2/feed/4GMODT Featuring Some Personal YouTube Favoriteshttp://laxallstars.com/gmodt-featuring-some-personal-youtube-favorites/
http://laxallstars.com/gmodt-featuring-some-personal-youtube-favorites/#commentsMon, 26 Oct 2009 21:17:51 +0000http://lacrosseallstars.com/?p=4686
Switching things up from music once again- in this Monday’s edition we dive into my YouTube “favorites” list. The sheer amount of videos posted on YouTube is still mind-boggling to me, as is the fact that virtually any media I’ve experienced in my 23 years is on there in some form or another. So, come with me as I take you on a guided tour of the awesome videos I have deemed entertainment worthy, possibly at three in the morning and drunk.

Mystery Science Theater 3000- Best of “Werewolf”

This show blew me away as a kid. The premise is a guy and his two puppet/robot friends watch extremely bad movies and have a running commentary making fun of it the entire time. Also, their on a spaceship. The show was at its best when making fun of cheesy cable movies, such as the 1996 masterpiece “Werewolf”. If your not familiar with the show YouTube is a great place to start, considering half the series is broken up in 10 minute chunks for your viewing pleasure.

“Boy their establishing the hell out of this building”

“It’s economical not to have a story line because than you can just film people saying things”

Curb Your Enthusiasm

“Curb” is still one of the best comedies on TV and it just introduced the character Leon last season. The show kept him on as the roommate to main character Larry David this season and its all the better because of it. This video collects the best of his moments from season 6.

Some NSFW language

Bust A Bucket

In honor of the NBA season starting tomorrow and the Trail Blazer fanboy in me, here is the early 90’s classic “Bust a Bucket”, about a young fans mental illness and his decent into Blazer-fueled dementia. (Not to be confused with the oh-so-much-funnier in retrospect “Can I Get A Headband” featuring the corpse of Bonzi Wells and the Jail Blazers)

Norm MacDonald on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”

Just watch until the 6:50 at the very least. Berating Carrot Top is always funny.

About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler and all-around well connected Lacrosse All Stars insider. The lacrosse playing ended in high school, but the friendships never did. The Prima donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following- “Your making a scene”.

Today we have the Austin by way of Brooklyn artist Alan Palomo and the band Neon Indian, which is gaining that all important “buzz” around certain music websites/blogs with the release of the album “Psychic Chasms”.

Sounds like an awesome name for a 60’s psychedelic compilation or something you’d come up with while riding around with Hunter S. Thompson in the desert.

This laid back, chilled out electro magic will have you reminiscing about the lazy summers of your youth…Pop these tracks into the cassette deck and chill out like its 1994′

Using a combination of cassettes, outdated analogue equipment and lo-fi production techniques, the sound of Neon Indian is certainly unique and sounds like a tribute to either underground 80’s dance music, analogue recording equipment or both.

You could listen to this music very intently and pick up some subtleties or as just good background music, it has a weird nostalgia to it that other reviewers have pointed at.

Quick note about all YouTube videos: make sure to always hit the HQ button if available!

It’s Fall, and that means lots of new music is flooding the market for the holidays. Of course, by “flooding the market” I mean being illegally downloaded in some torrent program, but hey, new music is new music. So today enjoy some new singles from artists such as Jay-Z, Ian Brown and Thom Yorke.

This first one is a track from the upcoming Lebron movie More Than A Game and an outtake from his Blueprint 3 album.

Jay Z – “History”

Don’t know much about this next guy other than that I like this J Dilla-ish song and the other songs he posted on his site are a little different style wise but just as good.

Toro y Moi – “Talamak”

This is Thom Yorke’s new song off the soundtrack of….the new “Twilight” movie. I know, I know but for some reason the producers decided that the soundtrack to the hottest thing for 13 year old girls since R Kelly (zing!) needed was the guy from Radiohead and tons of other indie-cred bands.

Here we have Ian Brown’s “Stellify”, the ex-Stone Roses front man (who are deserving a post of their own soon) and inspiration and sole reason Oasis exists. Those guys stole every move from Ian Brown and then got insanely rich from it in the 90’s. But Brown is still chugging along and still puts out good singles like this, which he wrote originally for Rhianna!

To finish off the “lead singer goes solo” theme of today’s post we have Julian Casablancas, usually of the band The Strokes. He has a solo album coming out the end of the month and this lead single is actually pretty good, and sounds like it came straight out of 1985 with synths and drum machines and everything. But is that his real name?

Something a little different today, no sweet music to lull you gently into Monday morning but instead… some stand-up comedy!

His big break was being a sidekick to Kevin James and being a CGI rat

After debating whether to post a sampling of some of the best stand up comedians out right now (no brainier picks like Louis C.K., Mitch Hedberg etc.) I decided to go with my personal favorite, Patton Oswalt. Oswalt has had a pretty odd career path, writing and appearing for various shows throughout the 90’s before getting his “break” on the CBS sitcom “King of Queens”. This supporting role eventually led to him voicing the lead character in the Pixar movie “Ratatouille”, easily his most well known project. But all of this would be for naught if he hadn’t kept his stand-up career chugging along and his material sharp.

I first saw him in “The Comedians Of Comedy”, a great documentary about four stand up comics hitting the road (and making a stop in my old stomping grounds of Eugene, OR). I would recommend as an entry point to Oswalts stand-up albums his second, titled “Werewolves and Lollipops”. It contains my favorite bit of his, his righteous rant about the KFC Famous Bowl, or “failure piles in sadness bowls”.

After years of waiting, on 09-09-09 a little Liverpool combo called The Beatles finally reissued their back catalog and launched a new edition of the hugely popular game “Rock Band”. The biggest benefit this all brought about is that (hopefully) a new generation of kids will get introduced to The Beatles music and, the songs themselves finally got the attention they deserved and were remastered for the new releases.

Why should you even care? Well, this is important because for the last 20 years people who have been listening to the band on CD have been listening to very inferior sounding recordings. When The Beatles were finally put on CD in the late 80’s the technology was not available to properly translate the analog recordings to the new digital format, so things like bass and drums were lost in the mix. These new releases fix that and the songs sound much cleaner and punchier.

I’ve picked tracks from the new remastered releases, plus my favorite period of the band, 1965-1966 and ending with the “Revolver” album.

The Beatles – Hey Bulldog

During the recording, Paul McCartney started to bark without warning. The next lines, initially written as "Hey Bullfrog", were changed mid-song to "Hey Bulldog".

The Beatles – Rain

“Three promotional films were made for the song “Rain”. These videos sparked…sparked George Harrison to say “So I suppose, in a way, we invented MTV.”

The Beatles – She Said She Said

“Lennon described (She Said She Said) as “an ‘acidy’ song”, with lyrics inspired by actor Peter Fonda’s comments during an LSD trip.”

The Beatles – We Can Work It Out

“Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher described (We Can Work It Out) as “the song that defines The Beatles”

Imma let you finish but last weeks GMODT was the greatest post of all time!

I don’t know if any of you readers out there know this, but last week Kanye West besmirched the good name of the MTV VMA’s by declaring his love for a Beyonce video and making Taylor Swift cry. Apparently one millionaire star insulting another millionaire star is so noteworthy we have two (!) U.S. presidents on record as saying it was a dumb move on Kanye’s part and the usual internet memes and assorted merchandise that come with this sort of “event”.

A lot of people think Kanye West is a douche bag and it’s probably true. But a lot of people forget long before his award show temper tantrums, Kanye was just a humble producer contributing beats to some of the best hip-hop albums of the decade. He got his big mainstream break producing the majority of Jay-Z’s Blueprint, then went on produce Common’s classic Be along with tracks from Mos Def, Nas and Talib Kweli.

I’ve selected some of my personal favorite Kanye West productions, in hopes we can all move on in our lives and remember a more happy, innocent fake video-award show time.

Mos Def- Sunshine

Jay-Z – Heart of the City

GMODT would add a caption here but he's still traumatized over people getting run over with lawnmowers on Mad Men

Common- The Food

Common- They Say

This picture was taken right after Kayne heard Obama call him a "jackass"

Last time we met I picked some brand new hip-hop to start the week, but this time were turning the clock back to the late 80’s for some stone cold classic New York hip-hop.

DJ Eric B. and MC Rakim are considered one of the seminal duos of classic hip-hop, and Rakim is rightly singled out as probably one of the top 5 MC’s of all time. Their debut Paid In Full is hit or miss overall, but the singles are all excellent.

I’ve included all the singles off Paid In Full for your listening pleasure plus the remix of the title track which is arguably the most well known of their work. I’ll leave you with some sage advice from Rakim- “It’s not where your from, it’s where your at”.

Two previous GMODT artists are back for a victory lap today- Jay-Z and Kid Cudi. Both have new albums out this week, Jay-Z with the third installment of his “Blueprint” series and Cudi with his debut “Man On The Moon: The End Of The Day”. Thanks to the magic of the internets I have had the chance to listen to both front to back and they don’t disappoint.

While “Blueprint 3″ is nowhere near as good as the decade-best first in the series, it does find Jay-Z sounding as if he is interested in rapping again and the producers he has assembled, including Kanye West, Timbaland and The Neptunes lend some pretty good beats to the album.

It’s the Kid Cudi album that really stands out though. Much more melodic and spacey than most hip-hop albums, Cudi shows he has a knack for a good hook and an ear for interesting arrangements. Rookie of the year for hip-hop?

Welcome back! It’s Monday and you know what that means- YouTube linkage and GMODT! Today I present to you Radiohead, probably the most critically adored band of the past decade. Don’t let that scare you away though, while they may be a little too “art-rock” for some peoples taste, their early stuff sounds like Coldplay…if Coldplay was interesting.

Songs like Fake Plastic Trees and Creep have been all over the radio and movie soundtracks, so I have picked a few songs that show the bands more accessible side along with some more experimental stuff. Dig it.